red drops and the grey linoleum floor
by Tospringe
Summary: After a couple of takes, Hoytsman was satisfied with Jakes confession. He shut off the camera and put it away somewhere in the back of the ice-cream truck. "Thank you very much for that confession Jake. I'm sure it'll prove to be very useful." He smiled. "Now, let me make your suicide very interesting indeed."


**Lightly inspired by supunghz's work Taken Hostage on , which is based around the same premise. I'd had the idea for this story already before reading theirs though ;)**

 **An AU for the s02e19 episode "Sabotage"**

After a couple of takes, Hoytsman was satisfied with Jakes confession. He shut off the camera and put it away somewhere in the back of the ice-cream truck. "Thank you very much for that confession Jake. I'm sure it'll prove to be very useful." He smiled. "Now, let me make your suicide very interesting indeed."

Jake's eyes grew wide. "Umm, Hoytsman? What are you talking about?" he laughed, his voice trembling ever so slightly.

Hoytsman's smile widened. "Well, I have to make sure you feel the same kind of pain as I felt Peralta. It would be no good if I just let you die quickly, would it?" As he was saying so, he turned around and grabbed a toolkit that was sitting on the shotgun seat. Jake really didn't want to know what was in there-

"That's a knife, that's a very big and intimidating knife!"

"Ohhhh God. Oh holy fuck daaaaaaaaaamn." Jakes last word turned into a scream as Hoytsman once again pushed the tip of the knife into his stomach. The lunatic had a crazed kind of pleasure shining from his eyes as he very slowly brought the knife upward. It slid past Jakes bellybutton, over his ribs until he finally brought it to a stop at his collarbone.

And it _hurt. So much._ Hoytsman took his time with pulling the knife out, and Jake was acutely aware of the exact place it was hitting his collarbone and piercing his nerves. Because it _burned_. It distracted a bit from the pain the rest of his body was in, but that wasn't something he was thankful for. Because it _burned_.

This ritual had been going on for a while now. Jake had lost count after the third cut. All he knew was that his body was one mess of ache. Hoytsman had cut off his shirt and pants quickly after he'd started, so Jake was one shivering, bleeding mess. In _pain._ At least he'd left Jake the dignity of his boxers. Apparently, it was okay to _torture innocent people until they were in horrifying agony,_ but unconsented nudity was one step too far. Oh, the trappings of their prude society.

Finally, after what must've been _hours,_ Hoytsman pulled the knife out completely. Jake let out a breath he wasn't aware he had been holding. How was he still alive after not breathing for hours? Why wasn't he dead? Could he please just die already?

Not daring to keep his eyes of Hoytsman for longer than a few seconds, Jake looked up at the man. The lunatic was twirling the knife around in his hands, his eyes fixated on the blood, Jakes blood, slowly dripping off and hitting the floor in small drops. Jakes eyes followed the drops falling. Fascinating. The way they hit the floor of the ice-cream truck was really quite spectacular.

Too preoccupied with the contrast between the red drops and the grey linoleum floor, Jake didn't notice how Hoytsman had put away the knife and picked up a smaller dagger. At least not until it was stuck in his right shoulder.

"Hmmmmmpffffffffffff!" was the only thing that could leave his mouth, as Hoytsman had put his hand over it to muffle the scream coming out. Although Jake barely noticed. Because his shoulder. Had a. A knife. Was in his shoulder. Oh God. Oh God oh God. Black spots were dancing before his eyes. Actually, the whole rainbow wwwasssss-

Rosa didn't like admitting it, but she was growing a bit, worried. The APB on the ice-cream truck had just come through, but it had been too long before it did. Jake had stopped sending them annoying texts about five hours ago now. That was too long a time.

She pushed down the gas a bit further. Next to her, Santiago swallowed uncomfortably but didn't say anything. Rosa could only guess she felt a similar worry.

Thankfully, the roads were quiet and the detectives reached their goal in about thirty minutes. The ice-cream truck was parked at the side of the road, and Rosa made sure to park quietly about twenty feet away from it as to not scare off the (possible) people inside.

As they approached the truck it was moving slightly in place, like someone was pacing up and down. The two detectives looked at each other and nodded in confirmation. As they had discussed before, Rosa knocked on the truck window. "Are you open?"

After a few seconds, the window opened and a scruffy looking guy poked his head out. Rosa didn't hesitate for a second before pulling him straight out of the truck, dumping his body on the street with maybe a bit more force than necessary. She quickly tied his arms behind his back as the guy started whining about something. Santiago was standing guard, gun drawn as her breath hitched.

"What's wrong?" Rosa asked, still focused on keeping the guy down.

Santiago tripped over her words. "His hands, they're- Look at his hands."

Oh.

Fuck.

His hands. They were a bright red color. Completely covered in blood.

"Check the ice-cream truck. I've got this." Rosa ordered, feeling faint. Without another word, Amy put away her gun and sprinted to the back of the truck. While Rosa could hear its back doors opening, she quickly finished up tying up the guy and cuffing him to a seat of the truck. The guy started whining again, but was drowned out by a high-pitched scream coming from inside the truck.

"Oh my God, Jake!" Rosa had never heard Amy sound this frightened before. Without sparing another glance at the perp, she bolted for the entrance to the truck. She couldn't immediately enter though, as Amy was blocking the entrance, completely frozen in place. Not feeling particularly patient, Rosa shoved Amy aside to see what had her so shocked, though she had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

It was- it was Jake. He was completely covered in blood, a myriad of bleeding cuts adorning his torso and legs. He seemed completely still but for- Oh thank God. His chest was moving. He was still breathing.

"Amy! Call 911!" Rosa jelled at the completely stupefied detective who had fallen to the floor after Rosa's push. Her face was devoid of all blood and her eyes seemed too big for her face, but she nodded after a few seconds and fished up her phone. Rosa turned back to Jake again.

Something she hadn't noticed before. There was a dagger still sticking out of Jake's body, buried deeply in his shoulder. It moved with every breath. Bile rose in her throat, but she swallowed it down.

"Alright. First priority, assess the damage." She muttered to herself, closing in on Jake. She counted a total of twelve cuts of varying depth and length, all bleeding sluggishly. Underneath the blood, she could make out extensive bruising.

"Bastard." Escaped her lips, realizing just how much pain her friend must've been in before he passed out. She couldn't dwell on that right now though. She had to focus. Pushing down her anger, Rosa tried looking at Jake's bleeding, tortured body in a clinical fashion. Right now, it seemed like the biggest immediate risk to Jake's health was the blood loss.

"We need to stem the blood." She realized out loud. Amy was still on the phone with the emergencies, so it seemed the task was Rosa's. First aid kit. In the police car.

She was reluctant to leave Jake, but sprinted outside anyway. Amy let out a surprised sound when Rosa rushed past. The detective rushed back in again two seconds later, kit in hand. The deepest cuts and most of the bleeding was coming from Jakes torso. There were two absorbent compress dressings in the kit, so Rosa got them out quickly. She cut Jake loose from the ropes that bound him to the chair, and applied the compresses to the deeper cuts.

As Rosa was securing the second compress, she noticed a disturbing sound coming from Jakes mouth. He was moaning, very softly, its pitch getting higher as Rosa put more pressure on his injuries. Amy had hung up the phone by now and rushed closer.

"Jake! Jake, are you awake?" Amy asked, face pale, tears streaming down her face. It looked like she was only seconds away from passing out right there and then. "Oh my God Jake, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. This never should've happened to you. I'm so sorry."

Jake moaned again, a bit louder this time. His closed eyes contorted into a frown and his mouth turned into a grimace. It was a horrible distortion of his signature wide smile.

"Jake?" Amy asked, voice tiny.

A high-pitched, incredibly fragile whine sounded from Jakes lips. To Rosa's horror, a tear leaked from his eye, quickly followed by more. "Jake?" Amy asked again, even quieter. Jake's breathing, meanwhile, picked up in pace. It also became a lot shallower.

"You're here. You're here. You're really here." He breathed out, voice breaking.

"Yes Jake, we're here." Rosa interrupted. "Please, stay calm. Breathe with me." Jake looked like he was about to pass out from lack of oxygen. He had to calm down, now.

Jake didn't seem to hear her though, as he broke out in a small fit of giggles. "You made it. You made it." He repeated before his smile turned into a grimace again and he let out another groan of pain. Amy jerkily turned her head to look at Rosa. Rosa returned her worried gaze.

It was at that moment that the sound of sirens started filling the empty street they were parked at. Not long after that, Jake was taken away by ambulance with Amy joining him. Rosa was left alone outside the damned truck. Her legs gave out from under her, and she crumpled to the ground, completely drained. She gave herself a few seconds to stare off into nothingness before she fished her phone out of her pocket.

"Captain Holt? I need to report- something happened. Something bad."

Jake was in absolute bliss. He was sailing on an ocean of sunshine, boat bobbing up and down on the waves. His head was light, his body was light, everything was awesomeness. He opened his eyes.

Oh. Apparently he wasn't on a boat, nor out on the ocean. Instead, he was lying in a hospital bed. In a white room, which, he concluded, was most likely also a hospital room. Yes. He was so smart. Content with his deductions, he closed his eyes again to fall back asleep when a voice interrupted him in his plans.

"Jake? Are you awake?" The voice was Amy's, and it sounded rougher than he had ever heard it before. Jake carefully turned his head to where her voice was coming from. He found her sitting on a tiny plastic chair next to his bed. Jake smiled widely when his eyes landed on her face.

"You're so beautiful."

Amy seemed surprised. "What?"

"You're so beautiful. You have to be the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life." He decided. At this, Amy gave a thin smile. Jake smiled back. When he took a good look at her though, his grin faltered. Amy looked incredibly pale. Her eyes were red, like she had been crying lately. Her hair was all messed up, and her clothes were in a state of disorder very much unlike the neat detective.

"Amy, are you okay? Are you ill? Is there a dog in the room? Why is there a dog in the hospital?" He turned his head again to find the perp, but was interrupted when Amy laid her hand on his chin. She carefully guided his face towards her again.

"There's no dog Jake.", she denied, "I was really worried about you."

"Worried? About me? Why? I'm fine!" he exclaimed happily. Then he realized something. "Has it something to do with the fact that I'm in hospital? Amy, why am I in hospital?"

Amy sniffed at that, tears welling up in her eyes. "You were… injured on a case. I'm so sorry Jake. It was my fault. I should've listened to you sooner, or this all could've been avoided."

Jake wanted nothing more than to hug her, but unfortunately his arms refused to move. He settled for talking instead. "Heeeey, hey. I'm sure it's not your fault.", he reassured her, "I probably did something stupid and got myself into this mess."

At this, Amy broke out into full blown sobs. Jake couldn't do anything but watch helplessly as Amy crumpled in on herself, shaking violently. After a few minutes of Jake shushing and reassuring her he was alright, Amy calmed down a bit. She raised her head, tears drying out.

"Please. Never scare me like that again."

"I won't. I promise."

"Then I promise to never let anyone hurt you like this again." Amy returned. At this, she stood up from her chair. Jake felt a sudden, stabbing ache in his chest when he realized she was going to leave.

"Please stay?" he pleaded.

Amy shook her head. "I can't.", she replied ruefully, "I need to report back to the captain. The rest of the squad is waiting right outside though. We'll see who won the fight about who gets to see you second." Her hair falling slightly in Jake's face, she bowed over and kissed him on his forehead. Jake beamed.

"See you soon, partner. Get some rest." Amy paused.

"Love you."

 **I am so sorry guys. Whenever I'm going through a rough patch, I seem to cope by making my favourite characters go through worse.**

 **If you spot any errors in the text, please alert me! English is my second language, and though I took a lot of care editing, there's always a chance of some mistakes slipping through the net.**

"Hey, Santiago, how long has it been since we last had Peralta getting on our nerves?" Diaz asked.

Amy frowned and checked her phone. "That's weird, we haven't seen him since we dropped him out of the car. He hasn't texted us either."

Diaz's eyes furrowed an impossible extra amount. "Something's wrong."


End file.
